I have a barely used synology diskstation NAS for sale. You can even have 2x2tb seagates (5400rpm) that are in it.
Model DS212+
https://www.google.com/shopping/product/1615857998531604633?q=synology+ds212+&biw=1280&bih=626&bav=on.2,or.&bvm=bv.146073913,d.cGc&tch=1&ech=1&psi=1pOTWPHYK4najwOB65XIBg.1486066729982.5&prds=paur:ClkAsKraX4rsxNzqJs42L54Mzkkkcrt6Wjjqn3GwUJt3nPjbAN-pT_rfguULpVWB7hdDuk4JRLOCg4DnUdAuxK_K2rxTfEhX0SZwHYBtQ7Amzm8kfU_K54fg5xIZAFPVH729wx7hXzyMRlPQHe-HpjEzIbrcRQ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjBusrtnvLRAhVY4GMKHbq2DkIQ8wII5wUwAg
Mint condition but no box
100 bucks even. It was used for remote backup of a local business for a short time.

Ill trade it without the drives for 16g of ddr3 desktop ram, I got 4 slots so 4x4g will work for me

 

Last edited: Feb 2, 2017

I'm kinda in the same boat having 6 internal HDD's and 14 external HDD's. I simply use two cheap USB hubs with on/off switches per USB input and activate when necessary.

 

I invested in a Auker 7 port + 2 charging ports powered USB 3.0 hub and two 4 slot hard drive dock. The hub is essentially the same as the Anker one of same spec, just branded differently, and cheaper. The docks I'm using were a bargain and are listed on Amazon as Allcam IT190 USB 3.0 Quad Docking Station. The dock supports up to SATAIII, though limited by USB 3.0 5Gbps obviously, and will also support up to 6TB per slot tested, but probably will support 8, 10 and 12TB as released, making it easy in future to upgrade by purchasing 6TB+ drives to consolidate down the drives while still having a possible 6TB x 4 = 24TB per dock, making 48TB in total, all connecting through one USB 3.0 cable.

It allows me to connect 8 hard drives into one USB 3.0 port on my PC and I was a bit sceptical of the cheap dock when I purchased but was half the price of others so thought I'd take a punt. When they arrived I was pleasantly surprised as they come with a sturdy mini USB 3.0 to USB 3.0 + USB 2.0 (for extra power if needed)cable, a two power solid power cable with power brick and the dck itself seems to be made from all metal except the little 2.5" drive brackets. The 2.4" bracket aren't really visible in pics because the way they've done it is that the slots hug a regular 3.5" neatly and when one is inserted it pushed down a plastic spring loaded brace at the bottom of the slot. If you put in a 2.5" drive, this spring loaded brace is not pushed down and therefore before the bracket to hold the 2.5" drive in place and works pretty well from what I've used. However, no idea on the long terms usage of these docks but we will see.

Having tested, I seems to be getting full expected USB 3.0 speed from the docks via the hub and no real slowness because I NEVER use all disks at the same time, and only tend to us one or two. Obviously if you tried to do something on all 8 disks the same time you'd start hitting bottlenecks and things would slow down due to bandwidth limitation. The two drives I tend to use the most I've put in two different docks. Not sure if it makes a difference as I haven't tested it yet, but this way they at least get full USB 3.0 bandwidth each from the dock to the hub, as if they were in same dock they'd have to share bandwidth all the way.

I don't run RAID, and the docks are JBOD disks, which is how I use them as my method of minimising data loss is to spread important data across drives and merge them into a hard link on my C: drive, so if one drive goes I lose what's on that one but most are replaceable data. I have checked though, and they do seem to support software based RAID on them (though not tried anything in depth as I don't have the drives to do that). Also, I can't see why the dock could be used for a FreeNAS setup either to have multiple drives.

Like I said, not done any thorough tests, but it seems to work perfectly for me and plenty of room for future consolidation and expansion (if the docks last).

It has also allowed me to run a 5m USB 3.0 cable from my PC to the hub, meaning I can now places the drive at the other end of the room and stop them generating any additional noise and heat in and around my desk and computer.

All in all, perfect solution for me and all cost about £100, cheaper than a 2 bay NAS.

 

All I gotta say, is one quick magnetic pulse and all our shit's as good as toast, forever gone and we so lonely. But no, it can't happen here. Shielding, mini quiet enclosures for out computers and storage media might prevent all the data as well as our computers from turning into doorsteps when it hapoens. It will become real, real quiet when it does. No phones either, and excetera. I am no purveyor of doom, however....Has anybody been listening what is still happening at Fukushima? A real media blackout, but it can't happen here. And now back to your local thread!

 

Interesting. So there are USB hubs with on/off switches? I've never seen one. Thanks!

 

NAS isn't rly worthwhile, tbh. Maybe u dodged a bullet w/ that one. Only use 4 them is maybe 2 store "churn" media that u don't wanna keep, liek crappy TV shows & such.

*hums Terminator overture* =)

Not quite quiet enough, however. Some electronics will survive. Some machines that are more terrifying than even robot Ahrnold:

 

Really, the cheapest I could find. Similiair like this.

I'd been reading into NAS/Raid/cloud and what not solutions and really got lost in threads where people go as deep as for eg. @Bunford here with speed, bottlenecking and so and while being knowledgeable is obviously always better, I finally decided all I needed was an easy way to connect an external drive to access my data, forgetting about NAS/Raid/backup scenarios and spent 6 dollars...

Having said that, if I had the money I'd buy a monster NAS with backup of the backup solutions ;)

 

Dis video got me into building diy NAS..... though I had to watch it 2 times

on a serious note - buy the right disks (e.g. the WD "red" ones). If you have some lazy "green" stuff that parks heads for too long, the system might think the disk is faulty, when in fact it just starts too slow..

Ed.: 4+1 redundant sys

 

I briefly checked the comments and of what I understand there are 2 things you need to figure out:
1) occasionally plug drives which you don't need daily - for this I'd suggest some hotswapable docking station for SATA drives (can be either internal 5.25" or external USB 3.0),
2) reasonably safe internal drive content - for this you can just go with couple 8TB drives, and have basically 2 options: put everything on both at once (either manually or using some software), or configure mirrored RAID (= RAID 1 type) to do that automatically - this really depends on how often do you write data on those drives,
NAS isn't really a good option for a workstation (although Apple pushes customers to various solutions of their incapability to provide serious Mac Pro connectivity in-house) because you're still going through network transfer protocols,
just for reference my current workstation drive setup:
500GB Samsung 850 EVO SSD - Windows 7 and software
500GB Samsung 850 EVO SSD - OSX El Capitan and software
2TB Seagate 7200.14 HDD - NTFS daily-used storage
2TB Seagate 7200.14 HDD - HFS+ daily-used storage
4TB WD Blue HDD - NTFS archiving storage
plugged all into ASUS X99-S mobo SATAIII ports

 

The more hard disks, especially high capacity [>1TB] ones you have, the more the chance you will lose your data. The more SSDs you have, also. SSD can just disappear and you won't be able to retrieve anything from it. It's best to keep the number of hard and flash drives to a minimum and connect them when needed. I usually stick to 1-2 hard drives in my PCs only, and usually it's a SSD+HDD combo. Works really well, and I'm always making the backup when everything is installed. I connect the other hard disks when they're needed. That prolongs their life span a lot. This USB hub with switches is magnificent, so simple!

 

The topic is already a bit old, but you can recycle an old PC or buy a cheap nearly silent one for example some Asrock Q1900-ITX (combo CPU + motherboard), there are probably some more up to date now, and install a special synology OS version which is called Xpenology, add 2 or 4 GB ram and you'll have a cheap multi-core "Synology" NAS.

Be sure to check the guide/tuto out there.

 

Agreed. sham69. Interesting that it's actually cheaper to just build a cheap ITX PC or buy a second hand one for NAS duties. Since you mentioned Asrock, I remember seeing their ITX motherboard with like huge number of SATA ports [12 or so], but those with 4 or 2 are most common. However, it is easy to just stick in an additional PCI[e] card with additional SATA ports, if needed.

Also there is FreeNAS OS that is very popular, reliable and constantly updated. The reason why I don't use NAS is because I don't need all these hard disks online all the time, and it's easy to just connect them as they're needed, and it prolongs their lifespan.

 

Anyone got a storage solution for portable usb hdds to protect them? What about a solution for internal hdds? I have quite a few archive drives in jiffy bags but looking for something more elegant and safer.

 

you can find a second hand Supermicro SC 932T-R760B or similar on ebay and use the ethernet port to connect